Famous Females
What do Rosa Parks, Helen Keller and Jennifer Lopez have in common?
They’re all on lockers in a women’s health center in Tomball, Texas.
Getting a mammogram is not my favorite thing (it feels like they’re trying to stuff a whole loaf of Wonderbread into a Campbell’s soup can), but these lockers where you leave the clothes while your parts get manhandled (actually, womanhandled) always make me smile. The ladies currently on the lockers are:
- Helen Keller
- Jennifer Lopez
- Rosa Parks
- Queen Latifah
- Princess Diana
- Maya Angelou
- Oprah Winfrey
- Julia Child
- Mother Theresa
- Jackie Kennedy
Last November (when I took the pic), I was Maya Angelou. For this most recent visit, I chose Julia Child.
What I like about this whimsy is that it gives you something to think about during the exam; Maya Angelou’s poetry, Julia Child’s recipes, accent and wonderful show on PBS, Queen Latifah’s music, etc. I’m going to be Rosa Parks when I go back in November, and I’ll think about her incredible legacy.
I mentioned how much I appreciate the personalization of the locker experience to the ultrasound technician and sadly, she said that they get lots of complaints about the choices: “I wouldn’t put my clothes in THAT locker.”
Hmmmmm. I didn’t ask which names create this angst. I will next time.
Flagrant Fees
The fee for last week’s ultrasound, which took less than 20 minutes, was $3,795. But most of that was marked as “Insurance Discount”.
The amount on the line called “Patient Responsibility” was only $219.98.
The number next to “Insurance Responsibility” was a whopping… $0.
So for a procedure that supposedly costs $3,795, the only amount paid was my $219.
I wonder what the charge would be for someone without insurance, or with insurance that isn’t from one of the big companies and provided by their employer?
The whole $3,795? Somewhere in between? Some other kind of fee structure altogether?
Medical fees are an inexplicable shell game, and highlight one of the big inequities of our time.
Fleeting Images
My last comments on this rambling post are about the ultrasound images. That’s my picture below.
When you’re watching live results during an ultrasound, the images move and sway in an almost hypnotizing way (unless you’re thinking of Julia Child dropping a chicken). Even in a still shot, I think breast tissue on a sonogram screen looks like an ocean in a storm, or maybe a map of mountains. What do you think?
Oh, and by the way, all my results were good. 😊
© 2021, Glover Gardens
Love the locker idea, so much more interesting than a number. Glad your results were good, and glad that we have our NHS. I have no idea how much a mammogram costs because it is free at point of use.
Free at the point of use is much more straightforward than our system!
Hi there! Long time, no write. I was just finishing up a reply to your mammo story, when my mouse well, it had a little meltdown, opened an Amazon tab I hadn’t accessed, then deleted my reply. Oh well, good times.
I had my mammo 2 weeks ago. All good like yours. I had cancelled the appt twice. Then in late April my sister called from NYC. Her mammo showed growths and her biopsy said cancer. Wow! They removed tissue, short set of radiations and Tamoxifen for 5 years. She said the med will amp up her already very annoying menopausal BS: weight gain, mood swings and lotsa sweat. Her partner Nancy is buying bullet proof armor for protection-lol. But we are just grateful she will be staying with us. And now I am a fan of preventative medicine, fortunate to live in a country that while our health care is less care than we would like, we are far and away in one of the best nations if we get sick. I had friends who got sick abroad. She died because they gave good care, but it was too far away.
I am on Medicare. We pay $160/month, copays, deductibles and 20% on most visits but surgery that is in the $1000s. I am shocked at what the docs charge. I am shocked at how little Mcare pays them. Medicare is prohibited to negotiate with any pharmaceutical corps on drug prices. Which is insane. Private companies negotiate all the time. Paying MSRP is nuts! Pharma pays politicians well, and Congress protects them so they make even more insane profits. Look at the Opioid Crisis. Who benefitted when it hit? Legitimate patients got dumped when clinics closed up. Doctors were harassed by DEA and insurance companies who didn’t want to pay. Pharma got richer. Why? They supply the meds that addicts take at the 1000s of new clinics that opened. Sweet deal, eh? And I am without pain management or meds for 2 years and no clinic will take any new or transferred patient, even though I am 10 years compliant. And that is why I disappear from social media. My condition flares and lets up, but I never know if the flare will be mild or severe, whether it lasts days or the better part of a year. If I ghost again, please accept my apologies.
Are you in BSL? Did you ever get a boat? And where were you during Zeta ? I am a nosey nellie.
I hope we can meet in the future….on a good day-lol. We are spending more time on the water….even saw kids swimming in our bayou and it was lovely to hear peals of laughter and shouting again. Many new, expensive homes on the water. Weekend homes. We used to be working class or middle class homes on our bayou, modest homes. Now the city is going all out on tourism, and please do not take this wrong but we hate to see what we believe is gentrification. You all bought a place and dove in to our little heaven. Too many new homes lie empty, sterile. They have bulkheaded and concreted every inch of shoreline, wiping out micro habitats that help make this such a fertile and beautiful place. These developers want to give people the feeling of a beach home, but not any of the messy, stinky, living stuff. They need to evolve, ditch the lawn and do conservational plantings. I know a professor at MS State on the Coast. He runs a program here that will help homeowners get permitting for a living shoreline. Even get some volunteers to haul oyster shells etc. This type of shoreline decreases soil erosion, sedimentation, may cost up to 75% less than hard, creates habitats for marine and bird life, and are more resilient during hurricanes…if folks love it here, we all need to dig in. Unfortunately our city “fathers” are focused on immediate coffer filling. Once again, we are flying solo.
I am sorry I did not mean to ramble on, hope this doesn”t blast into the Cloud or beyond again!
Oh my dear Maggie, I have missed you and your incredibly witty and insightful comments. I will be in BSL this weekend and will get in touch with you so we can meet for coffee, or tea, or wine, or snail, or oysters, or bird-watching! Yes, I got a boat, and it didn’t work out, and a second boat, and it didn’t work out, and a third boat, and it’s a keeper. All will be revealed when we meet.
I am soooo glad your sister will be ok, and agree that we are lucky compared to many areas of the world Can’t wait to discuss all of this – and more – with you. You are representative of the incredible blessing of making friends via this online portal to the world.
I’m sorry, I don’t recognize my user name above….I am Maggie King, and I live off 603 and Tigris. I think this used toi be Disqus, so that explains the change. My email is mgskng@gmail.com. And Maggie Luke King on fb. No other social media except Next Door.